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Instructors


Allan Cooper

Allan Cooper has practiced Insight Meditation since 1974. His primary teachers are the Burmese meditation master Sayadaw U Pandita, his student, Sayadaw U Vivekananda, Abbott of Panditarama International Meditation Center, and Joseph Goldstein, co-founder of Insight Meditation Society. Allan is a retired hospice and mental health RN, and has been teaching meditation and leading retreats in North America and Asia for almost 15 years.

Allan is the creator of HouseholdersVinaya, which offers clear suggestions and instruction to transform one’s everyday life into a proactive and workable home retreat practice.

Becky Glenn
Becky is a registered yoga teacher (RYT) by Yoga Alliance in the vinyasa (flow) style of yoga – receiving her initial teacher training from Stephanie Keach at the Asheville Yoga Center in Asheville, NC, in 2006. Ever since, Becky has been consistently teaching multiple yoga classes each week – first at the popular intown yoga studio in Atlanta, Yoga Samadhi, then in Silver City after moving here in 2009.

Becky teaches various classes, ranging from gentle to vigorous. In all classes, Becky emphasizes listening to one’s own body and following the breath. Becky brings a tender-hearted, playful spark to the yoga practice, creating an environment to support each student’s intentions and needs . . . while having FUN!
Beth Cable
For Beth, yoga has been a journey of self-discovery. She started exploring and studying yoga basics in 1995 and attended her first public class in 1997. Her interest, participation and studies continued to grow as she completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training at Kripalu Center of Yoga and Health in 2009. She has complemented this with additional trainings and workshops, including Yoga Therapy and Ayurveda at the Rocky Mountain Institute of Yoga and Ayurveda, hands-on assisting and adjustments at the Shambhava School of Yoga, three week-long Anusara immersions at Akasha Yoga and Yoga Tejas and teaching inspiration with Elena Brower at North End Yoga in Boston.

Currently, she primarily practices Kundalini yoga. By combining pranayama, asana and feeling through quiet stillness, she aims to provide individual physical, emotional and mental growth, joy and relaxation. This combination encourages witnessing one’s true nature more deeply and the connection to the world around us.
Cate Bradley
Cate was introduced to yoga classes in the 1970’s. Her first Hatha yoga teacher training was in 2003 at the Providence Institute in Tucson, and has a broader background from further study with a variety of masters: Mukunda Stiles, Rama Joyti Vernon, Joseph LaPage, Sarah Powers, and others. Her yoga teaching style is eclectic with a focus on raising understanding of anatomy and breath in the poses, and connecting the pose to mental and emotional clarity about “what’s up now.” She believes self-care on the mat makes living yoga off the mat easier. Recently retired as a Landscape Architect from the National Park Service, Cate is new to Silver City and excited to immerse in this community and enjoy the magic of New Mexico. Heather Steinmann
Heather was an ashtanga yoga practitioner for over a decade before being asked to teach a class at her home studio. After teaching ashtanga for a year, she went on to study other styles of yoga to deepen her practice.

Heather completed her yoga teacher training in 2014 with Tanya Boigenzahn, founder of the Devanadi School of Yoga and Wellness. Rather than focusing on a single style of yoga, Heather’s classes incorporate asana and other mind/body modalities from classical, tantra, and modern yoga traditions.


Ishan Das

Ishan das was born on planet earth in 1944. His whole life has been a search for a sense of purpose, inner peace, and fulfillment. In 1968 he met his spiritual master A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami who brought the process of kirtan to the western world in 1965. Along with the chanting of the names of God, Ishan was introduced to the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita, which explained that we are not these material bodies, and we are not these material minds… but we are pure spiritual beings with an eternal relationship with the Absolute. And, that the purpose of human life is the reawakening of that relationship. From 1968 to 1983 Ishan lived in spiritual ashrams in America, Canada, Europe, and two years in India. When Bhaktivedanta Swami departed from this world, the international spiritual movement that he had created departed radically from the teachings he had presented, and Ishan reentered the everyday world of western culture, while holding dear to his heart the spiritual values and practices received from his teacher.

In 2018, Ishan was introduced to the ancient Chinese cultivation of Qigong, and has studied with several recognized masters. Their teachings deeply impressed upon him the understanding that inner peace can be purposefully cultivated by learning how to open and soften our hearts through meditation in movement. This ability to soften the heart blessed Ishan with the revelation that the spiritual sense of loving reciprocation with life is ever-present, and can be brought into focus as we cultivate the ability to open our hearts. This was the key that enabled Ishan to begin to realize more profoundly the teachings of Bhaktivedanta Swami. Today Ishan lives in the Gila wilderness beside Little Walnut Creek. His growing sense of purpose is to share what he has learned, with others who yearn for a sense of connection with life, saturated with the flavor of love.

Jeff Goin
Jeff has been teaching and leading non-denominational meditation in Silver City, on a volunteer basis, since 2008. His classes provide practical ideas and methods for improving relationships, overcoming anger, dealing with stress and, in general, establishing and maintaining a peaceful state of mind.

Jeff is a co-founder of Single Socks, a non-profit thrift store in Silver City that donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to anti-hunger programs in Grant County, New Mexico. He is a practicing Mahayana Buddhist since 1999. Judith Kenney
Judith Kenney started practicing yoga at age 17 and it has been a source of joy, stability, and confidence in her life ever since. She trained and taught in the Iyengar tradition, which was the core of her practice for many years, and is now fully engaged in Kundalini Yoga and Meditation as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Judith’s teaching focuses on the principle of experiencing the body as a field of non-violence and integration. She is continually learning and growing on this path and wishes to share this wonderful technology with others.

Judith has worked at the Silver City Food Co-op for many years, and loves walking in the woods with her dogs and reading. Juniper Bowers
Juniper Bowers is the creator of Myssage, a technique of self-massage based on the principles of deep myofascial tissue release. Juniper was trained as a Rossiter Coach and in Thai Massage and worked for many years as a body worker before synthesizing her expertise into a form of self-massage that can be taught in a class. Juniper has been a teacher for 20 years and a Yoga instructor for 15 years.

Juniper began her training in the tradition of Iyengar Yoga, which places a heavy emphasis on correct alignment. She has since then gone on to study Vinyasa flow and Anusara Yoga and Feldenkrais, hoop for health and balance auditory visual exercises (Bal-a-vis-x). Her style is a unique combination of all of the above. She has taken the best parts of all of the modalities that she has studied to create an experience that is deeply transformative and informative. Juniper expertly blends and offers, an awareness physiology, traditional Yoga poses, correct alignment, techniques for brain and body balancing with a light hearted and playful approach to creating lifelong wellness skills that are accessible for everyone. At the Lotus Center Juniper offers a weekly Myssage class and occasional workshops of Hoop for health and Bal-A- Vis -X. myssage.com

Marc Nevas (Acharya Bhavananda)

Marc has been teaching meditation techniques based on ancient Tantra for 26 years. He began his meditation practices over 50 years ago and has traveled to India for advanced training from his teacher Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. He completed over 1,000 hours of formal training and received his ordination as an Acarya (meditation teacher) in 1998. This training enables Marc to give individualized lessons with individual mantras and give initiation with transference of spiritual energy (Shaktipat).

Marc founded a center for Meditation and Yoga and later was the builder and co-director of the Sanctuary Retreat Center both in Northwest Montana. He has also been a presenter at meditation retreats in Italy, Finland and numerous locations in the United States

Natalie Hall
Natalie is a registered yoga teacher in the Sivananda school of yoga. She was attracted to Sivananda yoga for its medical foundation (the guru, Swami Sivananda Saraswati, was a medical doctor), its consistent and structured asana and pranayama components, and its strong attention to yoga’s traditional roots. A typical Sivananda yoga class incorporates opening and closing chants (Bhakti yoga), pranayama (breathing exercises), and asana practice built around 12 basic postures with variations, and with relaxation between postures.

In addition to Sivananda yoga Natalie is a member of a growing movement of rehabilitation professionals working to “bridge the gap” between traditional allopathic or Western medicine and the ancient knowledge of yoga. She brings this intention to her work as a physical therapist for Gila Regional Medical Center’s outpatient rehabilitation department. Likewise, she is able to help her yoga students work with sensitive or injured areas in their yoga practice in order to achieve more complete movement. Patricia Stone
Patricia Grijalva Stone was born in Silver City, raised in Bayard, and has recently returned home after 30 years. Her discovery of yoga has positively impacted all areas of her life, so much so that she became a registered yoga instructor in the Vinyasa flow style. Her passion is to share the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of a regular yoga practice.

On a physical level, yoga helps improve flexibility, strength, balance and endurance; and on a mental level, yoga teaches how to cope better with stress by cultivating a sense of ease in both active and passive poses. On a spiritual level, yoga helps to cultivate awareness by allowing the space to connect deeper within yourself. She creates a warm, welcoming environment for students of all levels to come unwind, relax, energize, heal, and strengthen their body, mind, and spirit. Her classes incorporate breath (pranayama), movement (asanas), core strength (bhandas), flow, and music.

Shivani Ma
Shivani Ma grew up surrounded by the prairies of North Dakota. Her interest in the healing arts began in her teens. Most of what she first learned was through self-study and apprenticeship. She received formal training at the Supreme Science Qigong Center and Mesilla Valley School of Therapeutic Arts. She was initiated into the Siddhi Yoga lineage in 2006. Each step of her learning has built upon what came before in her healing and education, which inspires her integrative approach to teaching. Shivani brings her variety of experiences of energy, movement, and the body to her Yin class. SLUM

SLUM studied at the Globe Institute of Sound and Consciousness in 2016 where he became certified in this field. He’s done many sessions, one-on-one as well as group oriented. A sound bath consists of a various range of instrumentation as well as different tones and song, all designed to assist in restoring ones’ vibrational balance. Trish Buerger
Trish is YogaFit I and YogaFit II certified, receiving her training in 2001 and 2003 in Wilmington NC. Trish has her B.S.E in Recreation and Leisure Studies and her M.S.E. in Health Education from SUNY Cortland in NY. Since 1992 she had taught Community Health (now Public Health) classes (Nutrition, Stress Reduction, First Aid, Health and Aging etc.) and various exercise classes ( yoga, step aerobics, water aerobics, weight training etc. ) for the Physical Education program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Trish also developed and taught exercise classes in Wilmington and surrounding counties for the aging population and disease- specific functional movement classes in various exercise studios, churches, senior centers and wherever else there was a need.

Health and fitness has always been a huge part of her life. In 1982 she was involved in a traumatic auto accident which resulted in a brain stem injury, various fractures and over a month in the ICU. She credits great Doctors, the love from family and friends and the fact that she practiced a healthy lifestyle. It is through the journey of recovery that she feels that she can understand and relate to the various abilities of those participating in her classes.

Trish and her husband both retired from UNCW in 2015 and are now loving their life in Silver City. She is very excited and happy to be teaching at the Lotus Center. Zoe Wolfe

Dance has played a major part in my life, strengthening and balancing my body, mind and spirit. As a belly dance instructor, I draw from decades of practice, including movement meditation and improvisation. Proper alignment, isolations, choreography and one’s personal expression are paramount. Joy and laughter are a constant. Those experienced and those new to dance are welcome to participate: Come challenge yourself in discovering new ways to move, while enjoying the company this ancient dance embraces.